He takes the chair Chelsea vacated. He leans over, rests his forearms on his knees, clasps his hands together, and gazes silently at me.
Terror makes my voice high. “Oh my God, did I kill somebody or what?”
“No. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Relief floods me. My frantic heartbeat slows. Then I notice a few more details about Cole’s appearance, and it surges again. “Why are your knuckles all scraped up? Is that blood on your shirt?”
“Look at me.”
When I meet his gaze, his eyes are dark. So dark, they look more black than blue.
“You met Chelsea at a Mexican restaurant after work last night. You drank a margarita that had been spiked with drugs.”
“Drugs? Oh God.”
“Take some deep breaths. You’re hyperventilating.”
I do as he orders, sitting there with my head pounding and my heart throbbing and a sick feeling saturating every part of me. “Someone drugged me? Who would do that?”
“Dylan.”
I’m not sure I heard him right. “Dylan from the office Dylan?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Security cameras recorded it.”
When he doesn’t offer more, I go from feeling sick to feeling stabby. “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to tell me more than five words at a time. Tell me the whole story, start to finish, and don’t leave anything out.”
He doesn’t move a muscle or change his tone. He gazes straight at me as he speaks.
“All right. Keep breathing. I saw you get into your car when you were leaving the office and decided to follow you. I did that because I’ve been obsessing over you since the night we spent together, and it got worse this past week. Then you signed the memo with my last name instead of yours, and I lost my mind. I tailed you in my car, and when you went inside the restaurant, I followed you in there too. I know the owner. He’s an old friend. We work together sometimes. I asked him to let me watch you on his security cameras. I want you to know that he didn’t like that idea, he didn’t approve, and he was right, but I made him do it anyway. I wanted to see you. I needed to see you, to see what you were doing and who you were with.”
He pauses. “You’re not breathing, Shay. Deep breaths.”
Stunned, I suck air into my lungs until he’s satisfied I’m not going to faint. I’m not so sure about that myself, but he starts talking again, so I focus.
“I owe you an apology for my behavior. I know better. I am better, but last night, I wasn’t. Stalking, spying, it’s inexcusable. I can’t tell you how ashamed I am for that. And for raising my voice to you, slamming doors…”
He closes his eyes and draws a slow breath. “You have my word I won’t do any of that again.”
After a long moment, he continues, his voice lower.
“You went to the bathroom and didn’t return. I became suspicious, so I had Emiliano check all the camera’s views. One of them showed Dylan dragging you through the parking lot to his car. I stopped him and brought you back into the restaurant. I called a doctor, then called Chelsea into the office. When the doctor arrived, they examined you, took your vitals, and determined you were stable and whatever had been given to you would be metabolized by your system within hours. We decided to bring you home and watch you here. Which is what we’ve been doing until now.”
I know my mouth is open. I know my heart is still beating because it hurts. That’s pretty much all the knowledge I have, so I sit gaping at Cole until the blood that drained out of my head starts to creep back into it, and I can speak again.
“You…you’ve been obsessing over me?”
“Yes.”
I love that he doesn’t look away, flinch, or deny it. I know he doesn’t want to admit it, but he does anyway, and that gives me the courage to continue.
“And…you followed me.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me.”
“Yes.”
My throat closes. My chest gets tight. My eyes begin to water, and it’s hard to speak because I’m so emotional. “Dylan drugged me. He was taking me to his car, but you stopped him.”
“Yes.”
“So…basically…you saved me. You saved me, Cole. That’s what you’re saying.”
He hangs his head, exhales, and drags his hands through his hair. Looking at the floor he says, “I’m not a hero.”
“If you hadn’t been there watching me, what would’ve happened?”